Second Sunday of Easter

April 3, 2016 10:30 am

Meditation
Sometimes you say to yourself: the fire in me is going out. But you were not the one who lit that fire. Your faith does not create God, and your doubts cannot banish Him to nothingness.   — Brother Roger
 

From there to Here

Welcome & Announcements
Welcome to this service of worship!  During the service, you are invited to rise in body or in spirit, standing or sitting, at points in the service marked “*.”
Please sign in using the pew folder, passing it back down the row so all can greet one another by name, and place the sheet in an offering plate. We’re glad you’re here!
Prelude  Fugue in C Major, BuxWV 174 D. Buxtehude
*  Call to Worship 
One: Let us sing….
All: Praise be to God!
One: Who dared to take on human flesh and dwell among us.
All: Praise be to God!
One: Who did not turn back in the face of evil and death.
All: Praise be to God!
One: Who continues to dance through our lives even now.
All: Let all that have breath sing praise to God.
written by Katherine Hawker
*  Invocation and Centering My Soul Is at Rest
* Passing the Peace of Jesus Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on this day! You are invited to turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace and joy.
Reading Revelation 1:4-8
Hymn of Praise  The Lord Is My Light
Reading Acts 5:27-32
Song In the Lord I’ll Be EverThankful
Reflection in Silence
Reading                   John 20:19-31
Gospel Response   Nada Te Turbe

The Word in our Midst

Children’s Talk Jubilate Deo
Following Children’s Moment, children grades K-5 are invited to Children’s Church, which takes place in Cowan Chapel.  Otherwise, children are welcome to visit the Children’s Worship Center, where there are toys, books, and drawing materials for children (or parents) who would like help staying present in the service. For children preschool & under, care is available in the Nursery, downstairs off the Community Room. Please pick up your children in the Chapel or Nursery after the service.
Anthem Psallite Deo
Union Church Choir
Psallite Deo, this is the day the Lord has made! Alleluia! This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia, Amen!

Gifts Given For Love to Flow

Call to Offering
Our gifts help sustain this particular community of caring by sustaining the building, pastors and staff, and all the materials that make our ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need. In addition, a good portion of our contributions flows out to aid to those in need via many external agencies.
This can now be done online or by text to  859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering” to contribute to the ongoing ministries, or add “youth,” or “missions”  or designation of your choice to benefit one in particular.)
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
*  Doxology Laudate Omnes Gentes

Responding to God’s in Communion

One:     May God be with you!
All:     And also with you!
One:     Lift up your hearts.
All:   We lift them up to God.
One:     Let us give thanks to God.
All:   It is right to give God thanks and praise.
One:     Jesus sat with all sorts, the many different colors of humanity, but mainly those excluded, and broke bread.
One:     So along with everyone the world has turned its back on, along with everyone hungry, and everyone hungry for justice and truth, along with everyone abused as stranger and foreigner, along with everyone who does not fit “normal,” along with everyone who questions, doubts, and even denies, along with every prejudice that has ever been flung, along with every one made poor by other’s riches, you, you and I, are welcomed at this table.
One:     Let us pray…
Ringing of the Peace Bell
The Union Church Peace Bell was created by Jeff Enge in honor of Union Church member Carl Eschbach (1904-1998).  A twin bell hangs in Berea’s sister province in Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community
“Kyrie eleison” is Greek for “Lord have mercy,” and is an ancient petition in prayers of confession.  When invited, please sing the refrain through twice, and hum while the worship leaders interweave the prayers between our singing.
All: Kyrie (2 times)
One: God of empty tombs and emptier people: when we hesitate to speak of your hope, forgive us, and give us a voice to sing it from our souls.
All: Kyrie (1 time)
One: When we find it difficult to love one another, forgive us, and give us fresh compassion. When we want to stand with the high and mighty, forgive us, and seat us next to the poor and oppressed.
All: Kyrie (1 time)
One: When we stay locked behind our fears and doubts, forgive us, and send us out to share you grace. When we cannot believe your Word of new life, forgive us, and fill us with your joy.
All: Kyrie (2 times)
Song of Prayer Jesus, Remember Me
Communion Prayer 
One:    Great God, who sits with us at table, break this bread with us once more in the retelling of the story of our hope, the world’s salvation, and journey with us into life.
All:     You who created all, created all with love and in love.
One:     We remember how you offered bread to the prophets as they cried for justice.
One:     We remember how you refreshed even those who had sinned severely with new life and new hope.
All:     We would love the things you love, we would serve the peoples of your heart.
One:     Great God, may these acts of breaking and sharing be the act of your reigning, bringing all people to your grace, gathering every disciple in every time and place, every follower no matter how hesitant, to the place of grace and service.
One:     So we remember the story of the gathered disciples, and the broken bread; the facing of the cross, and the way through to resurrection; the empty tomb, and the dawn of alleluias where the angels sing, let us lift up our voices in song:
Communion Sanctus                                   Please Join in Singing
Words of Institution
One:     So many times Jesus fed us: In pastures, in houses, at banquets, while teaching…in the boat, at the well, and in the room when we were afraid…
One:     and now we gather at this table to remember and to be filled with such longing for your realm that we may rise together to turn our worship into witness and to follow in your way.
One:     We remember that when Jesus ate with his friends, he took a loaf of bread and, after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to them, saying,
All:     “Take, eat.  This is my body, given for you.  Each time you do this, remember me.”
One:     Then he took a cup and, after giving thanks, passed it to his friends, saying:
All:     “Drink.  This cup that is poured out for you is the promise of God, made in my blood.  Whenever you drink it, remember me.”
One:     Therefore, Holy God, we remember, and we cry for your Spirit. Enliven this bread, awaken this body, pour us out for each other. Transfigure our minds, ignite your church, nourish the life of the earth.
One:     Make us, while many, united. Make us, though broken, whole.  Make us, despite death, alive.
All:     Come, Holy Spirit!
One:     Come and bless to us this bread and cup, that those who are hungry may be fed, and that those who are fed may hunger for justice in Christ’s name.
All:     Amen.
Serving One Another
All who seek the love of God are welcome at this table and are invited to freely receive from it.  By tradition, unfermented grape juice is used in the cup on Sunday mornings. We will share the elements today by intinction, dipping the bread in the cup.  When invited please come to one of the stations by exiting your pew to the left and returning by the right. If it is not convenient to come forward, the elements can be brought to your seat by signaling to the usher. As you wait for your turn, and as you reflect on your communion, you are invited to sing with us.
Communion Hymn Ubi Caritas
Blessing for Those Who Will Receive at Home
Members who have been designated to carry communion to those who could not be with us this morning are invited forward at this time. Elements from our meal will go with our blessing and prayers for our continued unity in the Spirit. If you would like serve by taking communion to others, you are very welcome to do so and are invited to volunteer with the Nurture and Care Board members or by contacting one of the pastors.
Prayer of Thanksgiving (Unison)
Behind the locked doors of our fears and faults, we find you standing our midst ready to heal and transform. Thank you for this meal and thank you for every feast where your Spirit is shared for healing and wholeness. Strengthened in both body and soul, we sing rejoicing in the ever-unfolding gift of your love and life.  Amen.

From Here to There

Benediction 
Song of Benediction  Bless the Lord, My Soul
Recessional & Postlude Jubilate Deo
Especially in our prayers
Each week we join millions of Christians who pray for one another through the ecumenical prayer cycle and, locally, the Berea Ministerial Association’s prayer cycle.  Let us hold the people of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and our brothers and sisters at Gloryland Baptist Church in your hearts, and pray for them.
Please also hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week:
¨ Refugee families and individuals seeking shelter and safety, and all who are working to provide it: May God magnify our efforts.
¨ Laura Robie, recovering at home from knee replacement surgery
¨ Andy Blyth, recovering at home
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes, or who are homebound:  Edith Hansen, Nancy Jones, Mary Miller, Alva Peloquin
¨ The family and friends of George Oberst, at his death
¨ Sheila Johnson, facing breast cancer
¨ Marlene Payne and her family
¨ Kelly Ambrose and family
¨ Terry Allen Watts, NoraRuth Jenkins’ cousin
¨ Cindy Saylor’s friend Genny Bryant, who has colon cancer.
¨ Loretta Mountjoy, recovering from surgery at home
¨ Jerry Cooper’s daughter, Debbie diagnosed with breast cancer
¨ Anna Grethe Jensen, Sune Federiksen’s sister-in-law in Denmark, recovering from heart valve surgery
¨ Jillean McCommons, feeling a lot of stress and anxiety
¨ Alvera Perman’s new niece, Avery Stallard, born at just over one pound, and now fighting infection
¨ Kelly Kelsey, in her recent move
¨ Brenda Morris, for health and personal issues
¨ Jessica Spencer and family, at the loss of her grandmother, Hazel Graybeal
¨ Les Pross, recovering from surgery in Room 18 of the CTVU at St. Joseph Hospital, main
¨ For all discerning the way forward in difficult circumstances, may God’s light lead and guide
Announcements 
You Matter! Please Sign the Register, Check in on Facebook/Twitter and try a nametag! It’s hard to get to know people elsewhere, but we don’t want it that way at church.  Let’s all try to get to know each other better.
Concert Choir to Perform Myel Byrd’s Mass today, April 3 at 3:00 p.m. The Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers will perform a mass setting composed by one of its graduating senior members at 3:00 p.m. in Gray Auditorium on the Berea College Campus.
Amazing Opportunity to Talk about Race and Education THIS WEEK! And, it’s free! Berea College invites you to join in a national dialogue on race and education in the 21st Century this Wednesday through Friday, April 6th – 8th. Planned conference topics include but are not limited to: Community Policing, Growing American Economic Disparities, The Black/Brown/White Alliance, Immigration and Education, Racial Politics in America. Events will take place on the campus of Berea College. This is free to the public by registering at www.berea.edu/cgwc/. Choose “Berea Campus Registration.”
Union Church is hosting a pre-event discussion on what we’ve learned in reading America’s Original Sin on Tuesday, April 5th in the Community Room at 6:30pm.  Come show your support!
We Need YOUR PICTURE for a New Church Directory! Now that Easter has gloriously happened, we’re getting serious! If you’ve got a photo you’d like to use, please send it to the office. Also — if there’s a chance we don’t have your address, phone, email address, anniversary, or birthday(s)—please send that info on as well: office@union-church.org. There will be a draft available in the office for you to check and correct if needed. If we left you out — we don’t mean to!! Please add your info! Also, if you happen to know that someone has moved or attends church elsewhere, let us know that too.
Lost & Found — the items from the kitchen are moving to the shelves in front of the office. If you brought something for a potluck and it didn’t come home with you, please pick it up in the next 2 weeks.
Gabriel Evans’ Masters of Sacred Music Organ Recital on April 9, 7:00 pm at the Singletary Center for the Arts in Lexington, Kentucky. The instrument used will be the center’s 1979 V/90 Möeller organ.
Works will include composers J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, Widor, Messiaen, and more! Admission is free.
6th Annual Brushy Fork Cleanup April 9. Register at 9:30 am at Brushy Fork Park.
Step by Step Retreat for young single mothers needs funding:  this is an ecumenical, non-denominational, Christian non-profit organization that seeks to improve the lives of young single mothers and their children in central Kentucky through support, encourage-ment, faith and education.   They are seeking financial support to help send a group of mothers to an educational and spiritual retreat at Cathedral Domain outside of Irvine, KY, April 16 and 17.  This will give these young women the opportunity to learn and grow in a safe place away from their often chaotic lives.  Currently, they are short of funding for four mothers.  The cost for attendance for each attendee is $120.  Donations can be made directly to the organization via mail at PO Box 593, Lexington, KY 40588 or on their website at www.sbslex.org.  Checks can also be given directly to Joe Spencer to be hand delivered to their office in Lexington.  Any amount is welcome and appreciated.